Mechanochemically synthesized NiCo2O4/Vulcan/PANI nanocomposite and investigation of its electrochemical behavior as a supercapacitor

Abstract

Wet-mechanical alloying was used to synthesize NiCo2O4 (Ni-Co) nanoparticles. XRD results showed that single phase nanoparticles were formed after 1 h of milling and a minimum crystallite size of 3 nm was obtained for 3 h-milled sample. The 3-h-milled sample was mechanically alloyed with Vulcan (Vu) to fabricate NiCo2O4/Vulcan (Ni-Co/Vu). The Ni-Co/Vu sample was thoroughly mixed with aniline (ANI), and the mixture was then polymerized to polyaniline (PANI). The microscopic evaluations showed the change in shape of Ni-Co particles from spherical to worm-liked after the polymerization process. Their structure was evaluated using FT-IR and Raman spectroscopies. The electrochemical studies through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronopotentiometry (CP) showed the highest capacitance for the 3-h-milled Ni-Co, in comparison with other milled samples. The capacitance of 341 F g−1 of the 3-h-milled sample, was enhanced to 455 and 644 F g−1, upon introducing Vu and Vu/ PANI, respectively.